APOSTLE BARTHOLOMEW’S BURIAL SITE STILL IS A RESTRICTED AREA
02.0 7.2009
Armenian Apostolic church was founded by two Apostle’s St. Bartholomew
and St. Thaddeus, who where martyred during their mission in the
southern regions of historical Armenia in the first century A. D. The
St. Thaddeus’s shrine is currently on the Iranian territory and
the Armenian monastery St. Thaddeus built over it is currently a
popular pilgrimage place for Christians and Moslems. The government
of Iran gives importance to the preservation of country’s Christian
heritage and the Armenian Monastic ensembles is added to UNESCO’s
World Heritage List.
The monastery of St. Bartholomew (now in the South-East of Turkey)
was built in the 4th century at the site of the martyrdom of the
Apostle Bartholomew.
The burial site of the Apostle Bartholomew was inside of the Cathedral,
which was the important pilgrimage place for Armenians before the
genocide.
The monastery St. Bartholomew partly was destroyed by the Turkish
army using explosives in the 1960s under the Turkish state-sponsored
policy of cultural genocide of Armenian monuments. The main Cathedral
currently is in ruins and it is turned into a military installation
near the Turkish town Albayrak. It is also strictly prohibited to take
photos of the monastery and came close to the standing ruins of the
Armenian temple because of the regime of high security around the site.
Turkish armed forces still practices using the ruins or preserved
constructions of the Armenian churches and temples as a military
installations and stores.